Sprint Overdrive 3G/4G Mobile Hotspot by Sierra Wireless

Sooner or later internet will be everywhere we walk. No matter where you go there will be internet. But it used to be having Ethernet cables all up and down your house. Sprints new Overdrive gives you internet with a stupendous speed that can be compared to the internet from a cable modem as long as you are in the right city. Some of the U.S. carriers offer reasonably fast #G wireless data. The wireless speeds happen to be about one megabit per second. But surprisingly Sprint is the first American carrier that has came out with a faster 4G connection which will be faster. It is available in about 29 cities which include Austin, Texas where it was being tried out at the SXSW Music, Film and Interactive Festival. It is very similar to the Verizon MiFi which was reviewed last year. The Sprint Overdrive takes a wireless connection where ever you go and is used to create a local Wi-Fi hotspot that you are able to connect your device you. The Sprint Overdrive works similar to a regular Wi-Fi router, with the standard options like security. But with the overdrive you can unplug it and carry it outside and it works just like it did inside. One of the downfalls of the Overdrive is that it can only support up to five devices at a time. So for example that is enough for your laptop, cellphone, iPad, portable gaming device and your digital camera. While they tested the device, they realized that when the Overdrive is in default settings, they were able to squeeze out about three hours of battery life. This was while the device was engaged in typical internet usage (browsing, e-mailing, uploading a video file, streaming music). Usually that would be enough for a morning telecommuting session from a park or coffee shop. It would have been a great add on to have a optional battery pack so you can stay online for longer but when the battery is low or dead you are going to have to retreat to a power outlet. I bet you are wondering how fast the Sprint 4G network is! Well on a Wi-Fi-connected Motorola Droid it was average to be about 1.53 Mbps downstream. On the laptop the connection was 3.16 Mbps downstream and 0.59 Mbps upstream. This is not bad compared to the American broadband speed was 3.9 Mbps in Q3 of 2009. Even Akamai’s most recent report, they believe the Overdrive lives up to its promise of delivering mobile broadband. The Overdrive also has a plausible cellphone alternative, only if you want to take a step on voice over Internet Protocol, but only if you are also able to deal with the short battery life. It is a very small device, in fact small enough to fit in your back pocket or in your bag. It is not very cheap, but it is definitely less expensive than the iPhones 3GS service. You can also add extras. There is a microSD slot for adding up to 16 GB of shared network Storage. Also there is a optional Wi-Fi range reducer to conserve battery life. There is also a browser-based dashboard with GPS with Google Maps, MapQuest, Microsoft Bing or Yahoo. I can’t wait until this is available in more cites. This is something I would love to have.